Glowing
by Aduviri - A Writer of Verses
Summary: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are back in Wizarding Britain after disappearing abruptly at the end of the war. They have returned not for friends, not for family but to solve a mysterious illness. When the solution to their answers is found it's quickly clear; Hermione Granger's life will never be the same again.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

She's glowing. That was the first thought that ran through his head. Granger is absolutely glowing.

The last time he'd seen her in person was when she was testifying at his trial. Tears upon tears streaking down her face as if she wasn't even aware of them, she retold the story of that night; the night at the manor. He thought her crazy, there she was weeping in the Wizengamont court pleading for his innocence. Innocent, that's the word she used to describe him. Of all the words she could use to describe him she chose innocent. He was thankful that was certain but it boggled his mind, after all they had been through together she chose to speak for him. He'd watched her bleed, scream and sob as she was tortured on the drawing room floor by his psychotic aunt and yet she spoke for him.

He shook his head, as if to clear it from the dark thoughts of the past. In the past three years Draco had moved forward. After being pronounced 'innocent' by jury due to the 'extenuating circumstances' upon which he was marked and forced to participate as one of the Dark Lord's many minions in hellish acts. He thought them all as mental as his aunt at that moment. They'd unlocked his chains and from then on Draco Malfoy vowed to be his own man, redeem the Malfoy name and most importantly ensure that he used the second chance he was given for good.

After the trials Granger and Potter had disappeared. One minute they were there, speaking or simply watching as every man, woman and child who had been involved in Voldemort's regime had been tried fairly and honestly, then next they were gone. The papers claimed that they had been abducted and killed by underground radicals that had evaded capture following the end of the war. Finally after weeks of hysteria and rumours Kingsley Shacklebolt, the current Minister for Magic, had to step forward and assure the masses that both war heroes were safe and had left to retrieve Granger's parents. Quickly the hysteria abated and the people of Wizarding Britain went back to rebuilding the world that had come close to destruction.

Strangely it seemed that the Weasley clan quickly stepped forward into the spotlight in an attempt to get their 15 minutes of fame. Sure enough when they realised what they could gain they worked it all they could. Weasley landed a starting keeper position with the Cannons and Weaselette spent the majority of the time prancing around spending her war bonus (taken of course from charged Death Eaters sent to Azkaban) and prattling on about her wedding to Potter. After several months it became clear that Potter and Granger were gone for good, whispers started again. Apparently (not that Draco Malfoy was one for gossip) the pair had sent a simple owl note stating that they would not be back for a while and that they wished the Weasley family the best. His mother (by way of a chatty Daphne Greengrass now girlfriend to Dean Thomas) had discovered that Weaselette had blown a hole in the wall of her parents' home after receiving the letter.

He, along with many others, doubted that the two had run off together romantically or that Potter had been poisoned with a love potion by Granger. The latter accusation had of course been courtesy of a full page spread on the Weaselette and her 'magical' love story with her one true love Harry Potter. It was plain to all that Granger was simply the family Potter never had, a sister to lean on and most importantly; trust above all else. Three years had passed and now there they were, Potter and Granger, striding confidentially through Diagon Alley towards Gringotts.

Granger with her untameable hair flowing in the breeze as she strode quickly through the crowds was with Potter, who it seemed had finally had a decent couple of meals, clutching onto her arm. The pair quickly disappeared into the foyer of the bank and disappeared down a hall with a goblin. He turned to his mother whom he was accompanying shopping and grinned. Finally something interesting. His days had started to become dull as he built the Malfoy fortune towards what it once was. He'd started a company from ground up, Malfoy International, slowly amassing customers and community support. After all, importing and exporting goods was a lucrative business and many regular wizards and witches didn't want to go the extra mile to acquire a potion ingredient or object when they could not easily access it on the British Isle. Turns out helping lazy wizards makes for a tidy profit.

He'd digressed. Back to Granger and Potter. His mother had simply smiled at him, said in that soft tone of hers "Really Draco, Miss Granger again? Here I thought you'd moved on." Any number of odd noises and grunts had quickly spurt from his mouth in an attempt to rebut his mother's quip but none formed a clear statement. Now smiling largely that she'd stumped her son she pulled on his arm and walked him towards the nearby flower shop.

"Come along Draco" she said as she pulled him towards the roses and started to prattle on about the sorry state of the flowers. Draco said nothing, he merely nodded. Granger was back, Granger was back, the phrase repeated over and over in his brain. Granger was back and she was simply glowing.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Harry tried to breathe. In, out, in out. Calming breaths just like Hermione had told him. He could get through this, he was Harry Potter after all. He was the saviour of the bloody Wizarding world and here he was having a bloody panic attack in the middle of Gringotts. The closest teller caught sight of the famous pair and quickly ushered them down a hallway into a sparse meeting room. Hermione nodded, removed her tight grip on Harry's arm and dropped down the meet his eyes now that he had plonked himself on a chair.

"Harry, look at me. Harry? Harry Potter!"

Harry's hands slowly left his face and his eyes met with his best friend's.

"Good. Now I can actually see you. That would be helpful now wouldn't it?" she said with a smile, all traces of her stern voice a moment ago gone.

"There's so many people Mione. So many. What are we going to do? They'll want to be near me again and I can't do that. I won't go back to the way it was after the war!" his voice started to slowly raise as he grew more panicked.

"Harry, it will be fine. We are safe now in Gringotts, the only people here are goblins and they certainly don't care about whether you're back to renew your passionate love affair with your darling Gin Gin." The last statement ending with poke to his shoulder.

Harry let out a chuckle quickly followed by a low groan. "Uh Merlin. I'm going to see the Weasleys. The whole bloody lot of them will want a piece of me again. They aren't getting anywhere near me I tell you Hermione, I've been burnt with that stick and I'm never going back."

"I know, I know" she soothed, patting his arm. "You won't have to see them unless you want to. We will just go back into hiding at Grimmauld Place like we have for the last week until we get our business done. I promise Harry. One trip and then we are done."

Harry looked assured and briefly nodded his head. "Yes. Back to the house after we've sorted your mess. I knew we couldn't get through our little trip without running into a snag. At least this time it's entirely your fault and nothing to do with me." He said with a grin.

"Seriously Harry? Again? It's not my bloody fault that we came across the 'earth witch' and she went all Trewlaney on us. Divination, heritages and prophesies, rubbish all of it I say." she said with a stomp of her foot.

Harry simply grinned wider. "All your fault I tell you. Now it's your turn with this ridiculous hocus pocus."

His grin was infectious and Hermione quickly felt a smile creeping onto her face. "Laugh it up chuckles. You're in this with me, the unstoppable force of Granger and Potter. We could handle Voldemort so we can certainly deal with this ridiculous 'magical heritage' rubbish that the witch was going on about."

He grabbed her hand, "Granger and Potter, unstoppable force hmm. I like it. You know me Mione, we are in this together. Whatever the goblins have to say it won't change a thing. You're still my sister regardless of blood. Well, we fixed that already didn't we?" he said with a smirk.

"Honestly Harry. Stabbing our hands and declaring ourselves blood brothers or siblings or whatever you want is hardly a pact that would stand up in court but I'm glad you enjoyed doing it."

"Well, those kids said it was a part of growing up… and well we both missed out on that didn't we. Now that's fixed. Hopefully the goblins turn up soon and we can get back to our world tour. Greece I think next. I've heard the food is good there." he stated as his stomach growled.

Just as Hermione went to reply the door burst open and two goblins strode in. The first, Ragnok was a familiar face as both of them had met him several times after the war to make reparations for the damage they had caused. The payment, of course, was top secret to all but the three of them but let's just say Harry needed to do something with the extra magic his body kept expelling after the final battle and Gringotts was on the lookout for some extra protection stones following the latest Wizarding war. This one had taught them that the bank was not as impenetrable as the previously thought and any measure that they could take to once again ensure their fortune was essential. The second goblin looked to be a simple servant, he entered carrying a dagger and a rather long scroll whilst Ragnok carried nothing.

"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, how nice to see you again", Ragnok's voice rumbling lowly as he spoke.

"It's good to see you again Sir. Are the latest batch of stones up to your approval?" Harry quietly enquired trying to not offend the rather abrupt head goblin.

"Certainly Mr Potter, everything is in order and we are slowly lining our most valued customers' vaults with the stones. Starting of course with yours and Miss Granger's."

"Oh thank you so much" Hermione gushed forgetting who she was speaking with.

Ragnok cleared his throat. "There are no need for platitudes Miss Granger we are simply exchanging rather unique product for a reasonable fee."

Hermione's face quickly flushed as she looked down at the ground.

"Now can one of you explain your rather rushed owl to me asking my personal help? My time is obviously quite valuable but I doubt you wouldn't have contacted me needlessly." he said raising one eyebrow.

"Yes!" Hermione squeaked before clearing her throat and beginning again more calmly. "Well Sir, we were out in Australia visiting my parents when we were what I would call accosted", she turned to check with Harry and he replied with a nod, "Yes, accosted, and she started babbling about me being a decedent, something else about dryads and waving around her hands proclaiming the time had come. Obviously she was completely mental but Harry thought we should come and check with Gringotts so see if you had any advice or knowledge on such matters", she said with a pleading look.

The pair had been at quite a loss since the random woman who called herself an 'earth witch' had rambled at them about Hermione's heritage and nonsense about dryads. Everyone knew Hermione was a muggleborn there was no way she would have some other type of magical blood let alone some that linked to her dryads. They knew Ragnok would be able to sort the problem out and they could continue on their adventure which Hermione had dubbed their 'gap year'.

Ragnok gestured to his employee to lay out the materials he carried in on the table. Evenly spaced out were a dagger and a large scroll.

"Well then Miss Granger, get to it" the head goblin grumbled.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other confused by his abrupt statement. "Get to what? I'm sorry I don't understand what you want me to do." Hermione said frowning.

"Haven't you completed a blood heritage test before?" at Hermione's head shake he realised that as a muggleborn her parents wouldn't have known the option was available. "Alright then, simply prick your finger and let a drop fall on the base of this parchment." He watched closely as the young woman pricked her finger not even flinching at the sting and let a drop fall on the parchment which instantly glowed gold. He raised his eyebrow as she slowly turned and watched as her companion healed her finger wandlessly. 'Yes', he thought, 'the boy was a powerful one.'

Glancing at the parchment Ragnok's eyebrows rose unexpectedly. "Leave now", he barked at his employee, "and tell no one what you saw. Breaching a goblin friend's privacy will not only cost you your job but also your life." The goblin quickly scurried to leave, the door slamming ominously behind him.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other in shock and wondered what was so serious on the page that Ragnok had told his employee to leave so suddenly. They hadn't even noticed his use of the term 'goblin friend' which hadn't been used in centuries. Very few wizards had contributed enough to Gringotts to be considered a 'friend' of the goblin nation.

Ragnok had quickly skimmed the parchment and was amazed of what he found. Miss Granger's ancestry was one of the most complicated he'd seen in years and with the way families intermarried most family trees were rather complex. He cleared his throat and carefully chose his words, what he would say next would change this young woman's life forever and he hoped she would be able to cope. Many in her position wouldn't.

"Well Miss Granger, it seems that the woman who accosted you was telling the truth, although she did it quite poorly. What we have here is your family's ancestry for as far back as the scroll can hold, it seems that soon you will be undergoing some changes and will need to begin preparing for them."

"Changes! What do you mean changes? What's wrong with Hermione? Do we need to take her to St Mungos?" Harry leapt up from his chair yelling as Hermione sat frozen in her seat.

Ragnok waited until Harry had stopped yelling. "Mr Potter if you would calm yourself please I can elaborate."

Embarrassed Harry sat back down. "Sorry Sir, I am worried. Hermione seems to need a minute", quickly glancing at her Harry saw she was still sitting rigidly. "What is wrong with Hermione?"

Ragnok let out a snort at which Harry quickly frowned. "Sorry, I mean no disrespect towards yourself or Miss Granger but there is nothing wrong with your friend, quite honestly many would wish this gift upon themselves. It seems Miss Granger is from a long, long line of squibs somewhere along the line a dryad married in, injecting their unique gift and heritage into the line. It seems that the dryad gene lay dormant until young Miss Granger was born magical and has been slowly manifesting as she grows towards her majority."

"Dryad." Hermione mumbled. "Did he say dryad? I can believe squib, after all it does make sense but dryad? That's just utterly ridiculous. Come on Harry we are leaving. It seems that this is one big joke to them all. I knew we shouldn't have come back." Hermione stood to leave grabbing Harry's arm and pulling him towards the door.

"Stop!" Ragnok yelled. The walls rumbled with his outburst. Hermione stopped abruptly causing Harry to bump into her. Once they righted themselves Hermione raised her eyes to meet Ragnok's concerned ones.

"Please take a seat. You should know by now we goblins aren't known for our manners but I don't know how else to explain this to you Miss Granger. It's here right in the scroll, it's there flowing in your blood, you are a dryad whether you want to believe it or not." he said finishing with a jab of a finger to the parchment almost piercing a hole in the delicate material.

"Hermione…." Harry pleaded, tugging on her arm to make her sit down again. "Ragnok, if Hermione chose to believe what you are saying what does she need to do? Or rather what do we need to do in order to ensure she is healthy? You mentioned things like gifts and majority. What exactly does this new development in her life entail?"

Ragnok stared at the pair for a moment before quietly replying, "This means a great many things for Miss Granger; her life will never be the same again."

THUD!

Ragnok grimaced and pointed to where Hermione had fainted clear off her chair. "It seems that first thing you will need to retrieve Miss Granger from the floor and I will call for some sandwiches. It seems we may be here for a while."


	3. Chapter 3

_Before the next chapter begins I would like some help from my readers. Any ideas on a title would be very welcome._

 _On with the story …_

* * *

Chapter Three

What happened in the next three hours was what Harry could only describe as the most mind boggling research session. Once Harry had retrieved Hermione from the floor they began to pour over the large scroll still resting on the table where Ragnok had left it. On it lay generation after generation of Hermione's family history written neatly. From what the pair could grasp was that Ragnok had not lied. Hermione was from a long line of squibs where somewhere along the line a woman had married in, birthed a daughter and soon after died. This woman had not even been given a name, written instead was a single word; 'Dryad'. The pair was horrified, it was as if she wasn't even a person simply an object that the family had wanted to acquire but not keep.

"Maybe they thought her offspring would strengthen their family Hermione." Harry said sadly as he pointed out where the family line started get smaller and smaller. "See earlier it looks as if they were like the Weasleys, lots and lots of children but then here", he pointed at a smaller line, "it looks like after the dryad died that each member of the family could only birth a single heir to keep the family line from dying out".

"They got greedy…" she breathed "… they got greedy and thought they could use her gifts but when she died fate intervened." Hermione raised her eyes from the scroll and looked sadly at Harry. "They killed her Harry. They must have. Magic or fate or some higher power punished the family and their offspring became squibs. Years and years of squibs Harry, then there was me." She viciously pointed at her chest poking herself, "Me Harry, they got me and now I'm here and I'm magic and …"

"And you're you Hermione. You are simply you." Harry said grasping her finger and placing her palm in his hand. "It doesn't matter if you're first generation witch, or dryad, or from some kind of messed up Pureblood line. You are still Hermione Granger, a war hero AND best friend to the dashing and handsome Harry Potter." He ended his spiel raising her arm and pumping it into the air. The action resulted in a small smile, the best he could hope for at the present time.

Caught up in their conversation the pair didn't notice Ragnok entering the room with more scrolls and a small messenger style bag in his arms until he cleared his throat. "Well it seems that you've had enough time to look at your heritage Miss Granger. It's rather complex but from what I've heard you're quite the intellectual so you should have a fair grasp on your current situation."

"Yes sir. We've found where the line seems have almost dissolved. It seems like by entering the dryad blood into the family line that each heir born after her death no longer possessed magic. Is that correct?" she enquired.

"That's what we believe, yes. Magic has strange ways of dealing with events such as the death of your ancestor. It seems as if her name was not even submitted to Gringotts to be added to the family line or vaults. The family saw the value of her blood rather than the value of her as a person. These practices were quite common back then, thankfully such practices have all but ceased." He made sure that the pair were listening before he continued. "Now what I have here is a summary of your holdings at Gringotts. It seems that with your family background you have inherited little but a large piece of land near Wiltshire and what appears to be some family heirlooms. With so many squibs the family no longer had access to Gringotts and could not sell off the last of their possessions.

Hermione's hand had been creeping unconsciously towards the scrolls that Ragnok had brought in to show them. As an avid researcher she could not wait to get her hands on what Ragnok had brought them or any other material she could find about Dryads.

Seeing the look of desire on the young woman's face Ragnok decided to take pity on the pair. He cleared his throat once more, "What I propose is that you return home with the materials I have brought for you. Read the information all you like but make sure you get a good night's sleep as tomorrow if you would like I will take you to your family's ancestral grounds.

Hermione grabbed at Harry's arm, her face now splitting into a wide grin. "Can we Harry? I know I said we would only come here once but I really want to learn all I can about this whole dryad blood business."

Harry grabbed her hand once more in an attempt to stave off hysterics. "Yes, of course Hermione. Why on earth wouldn't we find out as much as we can? You've followed me into battle and dangerous situations how many times now, I can certainly brave Diagon Alley once more for you."

Ragnok quickly interrupted before he had to be exposed to anymore of their affection. Wizards were too dramatic for his liking. "It appears that unfortunately for you a large crowd has gathered outside the bank whilst you have been inside. It seems the wizarding public is keen to welcome home the both of you." Ragnok chuckled at their horrified expressions before continuing, "However, as you are such valued customers of Gringotts I will allow you the use of this return portkey. It should take you to where you are staying", he paused, "the ancestral home of the Black's?" At the pair's nod he continued, "Yes, it will take you home and then you will need to grasp carefully onto it at precisely 10am tomorrow morning where you will be returned to this room to continue our business. Is this acceptable?"

"Yes. Oh Merlin yes! I couldn't even fathom facing those people out there. We are glad to be back but being swamped by people is not ideal right now".

"Especially Weasels" Harry muttered not realising Ragnok could hear him.

"Well then. That concludes our business for today. I suggest you peruse the books in the bag as well as the document I have here. Grasp firmly onto this piece of rope and I will see you tomorrow."

"Thank y….." Hermione's final word was cut off as the pair was whisked back to the foyer of Grimmauld Place.

Once again Harry couldn't stick the landing and crashed onto the entrance rug. He was quickly rushed to by their house elf Blinky who started patting him and muttering about how Master Harry should be more careful and how much he loved his Harry Potter sir. Hermione sighed at the elf's entrance. They had accidentally bought her in Italy. Thinking she was hiring a maid service after Harry had made a godawful mess of his hotel room which she couldn't be bothered to fix, the pair were shocked when the hotel concierge brought them a smiling elf in a bright purple dress.

They tried and tried to explain to the concierge, then the hotel manager, then the hotel owner that they did not want to buy an elf. But finding it very difficult to understand what the Italians were saying and trying to speak over an elf that was wailing whilst clinging to Harry's pant leg the pair decided to just take her. Hermione was still trying to convince the elf she needed time off every week as well as payment but she was a stubborn little things. Sometimes the effort wasn't worth it and she ended up being a great asset to the pair's overseas adventures, often enjoying sightseeing as much as them.

She decided to simply leave Harry on the floor to Blinky's ministrations however forceful they may be and delve into the materials. Although this sudden twist in her life was unexpected, it certainly would make life more interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

With Blinky's help Harry managed to roll Hermione into bed around 12am to get some sleep. She was like a research demon. Hermione on a mission was someone not to be trifled with. When he got up at 6am he found her sprawled across the living room floor surrounded by a pile of books and writing in a muggle notebook that she'd found from god only knows where. Blink started tugging on his arm "Mistress Mioney won't eat Blinky's food. Blinky is a bad elf. Blink can't please Miss Mioney." As the elf started to wail Harry sighed and went to drag Hermione to the kitchen.

Hermione refused until Harry simply pointed at the wailing elf and held his hand out to help her up off the floor. As Hermione collected the notebook filled to the brim with information Blinky turned and gave what Harry could only describe as a smirk and strutted off into the kitchen to cook breakfast for the pair. _Bloody elves_ thought Harry. Ever since they'd accidentally acquired her she had them twisted around her little finger. Between Harry's dislike for arguing and Hermione's obsession with elf rights, little Blinky had the run of the house.

Shaking his head Harry followed the elf towards the kitchen and as he sat down Hermione started to prattle facts at him that his sleepy brain could simply not comprehend. He grabbed her arm to gain attention, "Hermione, it's early. Can we please have some food THEN you can tell me what you learnt". With a flourish Blinky presented the two with their omelettes and went to leave.

"Stop Blinky. What we learnt yesterday will affect you too so you may as well hear this too." Blinky slowly nodded and sat next to the pair, she was a young elf and was more open to change from traditional elf/wizard roles, they often had odd requests of her but if it pleased her two masters then she was happy to oblige.

Hermione took a deep breath and started to explain. "It seems here that the earth witch and the goblins are correct I do have dryad blood and am starting to come into something called my majority. From what I can determine is that I will undergo some minor physical changes but most importantly as I have magical blood my magic may be a bit erratic for a while."

Harry nodded. "That seems manageable. We'll just stay close to home and go blow some training dummies up; you seemed to enjoy that a couple of years ago" he said with a smile.

Hermione smiled briefly then grimaced at her next entry in her notebook. "This is the part where we may face problems. It seems it's common for dryads to seek out a mate during and after their majority. I will need to bond with some type of forest or earthy type area in order to get some sense of calm when I'm dealing with all the changes. The part I'm worried about is this whole ' _mate'_ business." She said scrunching her nose at the word.

"Mate as in like mating. Like babies and stuff?" questioned Harry.

"Seriously Harry? Babies and stuff?" she laughed. "Yes I suppose babies come into it at one point. Supposedly I have previously or will soon be drawn towards my mate. Dryads can, luckily for me, survive without their mate but will at times be plagued with great loneliness. Loneliness I can deal with if we can't find my mate or if it's someone like Ron."

"Loneliness doesn't sound good but I can understand where you're coming from with the Ron comment. There's no way we are getting tangled back in with the Weasley family. We've learnt our lesson with that bunch of leeches. If they couldn't understand my need to go find your family with you after you'd sacrificed so much for me and why Ron's betrayal of us for his bloody stomach was such a breach of trust, then they aren't the type of people we want to be around." he said shaking his head. "Plus Ginny kind of looks like my mum and that's more than a bit creepy right?" he mumbled.

Hermione burst out into giggles. "Yeah she does look a bit like your mum in the photos you've been given. Gross." Blinky had no idea what had pleased her mistress so much but that was fine, as long as she was happy again. She used the fact that they were both distracted to slip a bit more food onto their plates. She couldn't let her new family waste away. She smiled to herself, Blinky was a good elf.

"Ok, ok. Teasing Harry time is over." Harry said as he shovelled another mouthful of omelette into his mouth completely missing the wide grin stretched across Blinky's face. "So what's the plan? Meet Ragnok at Gringotts and look at your land, maybe find some trees or something and have a look at those heirlooms he mentioned. We can leave the whole mating thing until later, I really don't want to think about someone doing that with my sister."

"That sounds like a decent enough plan. I think we should go clean up and get ready to meet Ragnok. You can have a look at my notes when you're done with your shower." The pair nodded and set off upstairs to wash and dress ready to go to the bank.

Blinky began to clean up the breakfast materials and straighten up the mess of books Hermione had left on the floor ready to return to Ragnok.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

As Ragnok, Hermione and Harry landed at what Ragnok had identified as Hermione's ancestral home three things happened in quick succession. Harry once again didn't stick the landing and fell flat on his face, Hermione took in a sharp breath at what lay before her and promptly fainted and Ragnok simply sighed mentally bemoaning at how delicate the human species was. He transfigured a chair and sat down to wait whilst they sorted themselves out; after all he was going above and beyond his job he wasn't going to act as a healer too.

After raising his head from the dirty Harry rushed over to help Hermione come to. When she did she simply pointed her finger towards the land in front of them. There stood a large derelict house surrounded by flowers, trees and plants with a wooded area off in the distance.

Ragnok started to speak, startling the pair as they had forgotten he was there, "As you can see it needs a bit of work. We can take a tour and inspect the property to see what renovations need to be done and organise a group of workers to begin with repairs. Is this acceptable Miss Granger?"

"Yes, certainly. A tour is needed I think, then we can see what we're dealing with. Do I have plenty money to fix what needs to be fixed?" she enquired.

"Miss Granger, as a valued customer Gringotts can certainly help you with the repairs to your property for price value."

"Thank you so much. I appreciate that greatly. At price value? You mean at cost?" Hermione was gobsmacked, Ragnok was implying that he would waive the regular mark-up price and commission normally taken.

"Yes Miss Granger. Now let's get on with the tour I don't have time to waste." he said abruptly moving towards the main house.

As they got closer Hermione and Harry realised calling the building a house was an insult, it could almost be called a small manor. The bones of the place were stunning; large windows, high ceilings, a large number of spacious rooms for all occasions. To say they were stunned was an understatement.

With a wave of his hand Ragnok cleared the dust from an old chaise lounge, sat and placed two small pieces of jewellery on the small table in front of him. He gestured for the pair to sit and quickly explained that the two pieces came with no instructions but he assumed the detailed ring and necklace were designed for the original dryad to wear to signify who she was and perhaps focus her powers better. He then stood abruptly, told the pair to contact Gringotts by owl when they decided what exactly the wanted to repair in the property and in what order. With a large pop he was gone.

Hermione and Harry sat there in silence until Harry suddenly blurted out "Well, pick them up then. I want to see what they do."

"What, what does?" Hermione asked, confused.

"The jewellery Hermione! If they were hidden away in Gringotts they must be important. Stick them on and see what happens."

"Ok" she said and slipped on the necklace followed by the ring. As the second item slid onto her finger Hermione's whole body began to glow. Harry watched in amazement as his friend's body was enveloped in a bright wash of gold.

"Hermione!" he yelled.

Hermione laughed. "I can still hear you. You don't need to shout. Can you see the glowing? When do you think it will stop? As soon as she finished her final question the glow started to abate until it finally disappeared.

"Well that was different." Harry said with a laugh. "What next then?"

"I think we should look outside. We can come back later and decide what we need to fix. There's no way I'm living here alone so you're coming with me." At Harry's shocked face she stopped abruptly. "Did you think I was going to just move here by myself, without you? All by myself? We are in this together Harry, remember Potter and Granger the unstoppable team. Just think of this as another big adventure. The worst thing that could happen is that if we find my mate he turns out to be a prat."

"Oh, sorry this is just happening so fast and well … I wasn't sure." he said looking at the ground.

Hermione tackled him in her signature hug. Placing her head against his chest she mumbled, "Harry we're in this together. I can't do this along. Can you help?

Harry hugged her back, kissing the top of her head and replied "Sure Mione, in this together. Now let's go find us some trees or dirt or something."

Hermione laughed and tugged him outside into what they'd decided to call the front yard. "Um, maybe let's do this later. House first, the yard is a bit too much to deal with right now."

Harry nodded, happy to let her decide on their plan of action.

"Alright then", she said as she retrieved another notebook from her bag, "Let's get started". Waving a muggle pen in the air she looked around her in excitement.

"Uh Hermione… I think Blinky might be able to help us with this. I've got no idea where to start" Harry said scratching his head and surveying the entrance hall they had walked into.

"Right, oh. They certainly didn't teach home decoration or maintenance at primary school or Hogwarts. Who can we get …." she trailed off.

"Blinky!" Harry yelled.

Hermione could have almost smacked herself in the head. Of course Blinky would know what to do. Blinky popped into the room, looked around and said "We may need some help Master Harry and Missy Mione. This is a very big mess. Master Harry what did you do this time? she finished turning around and pointing an accusing finger at Harry.

Hermione laughed as Harry raised his hands in the air as a sign of surrender.

"It's not my fault this time! I swear for once it's not my fault." he pleaded with the small elf advancing on him.

Hermione finally caught her breath from laughing and quickly explain the situation to the elf and how they needed her help to decide on repairs that the goblins could do before they could start decorating. At that the elf nodded, gestured for the notebook and pen in Hermione's hand and started off down the hall writing down her ideas.

Harry and Hermione shook their heads. Once again the little elf was ruling their family. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, he had no idea about these things and was happy for the elf to take charge. Hermione raced off behind the elf trying to see what she was writing.

Harry took one look around him, scourified the nearest lounge and laid down. He would wait for them to return. Until then he was taking a well-deserved nap.


End file.
